Crossroads - which direction

[Rhino_Power]

Some of you will have played against me for the past year now. (I made only 1 post from 2008-2012) Before i took PL serious i was at best a break-even player. I had no real plan of action and played random games just for the sake of playing. I had no real hunger confidence or desire to improve or win if truth be told. My son needing less of my time has helped to a degree - i can now concentrate on games starting early evening as opposed to being restricted to ones starting too late to see through. From last summer-time things started to change. I listened to others (Samba/Yogi), i watched others, i railed others and i became a better player. Not just a better player but a hungry player with desire and an increasing confidence. The more i won the more i found i enjoyed the game and the start of a bankroll management plan began. I have played a lot of the PL games and found a lot of value-added ones along the way with plenty of freerolls too. I ended 2012 with a £610 "career profit" with two nice league champion trophies on here. I was going to post a new challenge for 2013 with the hope of breaking £1000 by the end of it. Not sure why maybe the worry of failure but i never did but i have kept an accurate bankroll and posted my winnings on here. I broke through £1000 at the start of July and i also have an i-pad which my family love so i exceeded expectations. The problem i have however is nights like tonight. I started playing at 7.30pm and played 4 MTTs finishing at 10.30pm. My total investment was only £1 on the Betfred social. I also played the Betfred Giveaway, Monday Free Bets, and Full Tilt Talksport to Galway. I won 50p on the Giveaway and a £5 free bet for finishing 4/259 - so at present im 50p down. I have the bankroll but i am not re-investing it! I am sat hours on end playing for peanuts with the occasional decent win to keep me ticking up. I posted 7 winnings in July for a poxy $32 today! Part of it is a mental block. I have previously played MTTs $10 regularly and occasionally more but i have always seemed to come out frustrated by a bad-beat. I move back to a play a freeroll and i hold every time so try a $10 and my aces suck out. I kind of already know what i should be doing from here and my main aim for writing is to try and inspire myself to move on a level, to take a % of my bankroll and try and spin it up quicker. I should not be worried over losing what ive grinded out so far. Its there to re-invest! I guess i am after any words of wisdom/support from you. Maybe some ideas of which tourneys i should play but im hoping by writing this im committing myself to stop playing Andy Murray Freerolls and play some real poker!

[Bart(UK)]

Re: Crossroads - which direction Hi Rhino, your post itself does you a tremendous amount of credit and is deserving of very detailed thought-provoking responses. The fact that you are raising these questions and considering your position carefully before doing anything shows exactly what a switched on player you are or have become :notworthy I can't at the moment put across what I was going to say without going into a rambling wall of text. Will therefore summarise later on tonight/tomorrow for you. Skype might also be a good option to share thoughts/questions/experiences etc. Feel free to pm me for my contact details, always happy sharing thoughts with fellow members.

[reb33]

Re: Crossroads - which direction Hi Rhino - It's so easy to get bored with playing too much poker and I've never really understood why 10,000 people want to play a freeroll which will take over 6 hours to complete for a $10 top prize. Sounds to me you are doing ok but are in need of a bit of a buzz so I would suggest being more selective of the freerolls you play so that it is worthwhile of your time and try a few cheap satellites to get you in to a big money final like the Sunday $150k gtd or to a live event. It's great playing in a $100 + final when it's only cost you $5 to get there and even if you don't cash it's great to play!! Good Luck

[Rhino_Power]

Re: Crossroads - which direction Reb 33 - thanks - that is exactly what i have done - i have selected the better valued freerolls so far and staying away from the daft entries. Shame i missed out on an easy tenner on Thursday nights freeroll with poor play. I have enjoyed using the wasted time playing badminton and darts in the garden with my son. Bart - thanks for the comments......i dont have skype but usually communicate via facebook of googlechat.

[Rhino_Power]

Re: Crossroads - which direction Well tonight after a nudge from Samba i decided to invest in the $22 Boyle 1k added. Managed to finish 8 / 112 to make $113.40 A resounding success but gutted once more. After an extremely patient performance with little help from the dealer i suddenly made a move and found myself in the top10 with successive flip wins ahead. One by one slowly the numbers dropped and i entered the FT in 9 /10. A quick double and and i was in business. A clear chip leader developed with everyone else close in a pack. I was 6/8 with QQ. I wasnt folding this and ended up all in with the chip leader........who shows JJ.............out came the J i was sent packing.............. :wall A good performance but again could have been so much more :puke

[glceud]

Re: Crossroads - which direction Could have been a lot worse if you hadn't won "successive flips" Think I must be the only player here who regards winning a flip as a miracle and getting it in good as an even bigger one. Nothing wrong with your play, but if you rely too much on winning flips don't get upset when you lose some at big odds. Cards never knock you out of tournies only people with more chips.

[Rhino_Power]

Re: Crossroads - which direction Very true but those flips wins were absolute musts. The initial one i was short in a all-in or shove situation. My JJ beat lower pockets so was 2 outer win. Almost immediately the table shortie shoved and i have TT. With huge blinds it was a definite call with his wider range and my TT held against lower pockets. These 2 hands took me right into contention. Id hand a stinker of a dealer all night and when those came along i was doubly excited to use them! Do you think i rely on flip wins too much as a player in general or just your one-off read from my exit whinge lol ?

[Rhino_Power]

Re: Crossroads - which direction I have been reliably informed by Yogi that i should not have called them "flips". I need to work on my poker language - i often cant understand what people are talking about :-)

[glceud]

Re: Crossroads - which direction Well I didn't know how far ahead you were with the other 2 hands, not too sure that "flip" is the correct term for two pairs getting it in. It's not a 2 outer though as there are flush, straight, and split pot options. Only hand that's really pissed me off in the last couple of years was aces v aces and he made the flush. I always look at the % thing when all in and until I get to the 5% on the river I know that there is still every chance the hand might not hold up. Even then he has an active 20/1 shot. If they were proper flips you were a lot more likely to be out than in. You also said you won another double up at final table, by now you were due to lose one even if miles ahead! Woops, just remembered another hand that annoyed me, flopped a full house to his bottom pair the % thing was showing 100% until he hit runner runner quads. Heads up at final table too. What I was trying to say was forget about every exit hand when you get it in good, you were actually the lucky one to get deal the better cards and get a call. I can't comment on your overall play, just don't get upset when you get knocked out . Even if that hand had held up you could still have finished 8th unless you planned limping up the ladder a wee bit which is even worse than moaning about an exit hand! Any way best of luck, and listen to Pete, anything you can afford with added value is good.

[Bart(UK)]

Re: Crossroads - which direction The way I see poker, and I could be wildly wrong here as lots of people see it much differently to me, which of course I respect, is that it is largely 1 of 3 things or a combination of them, namely: 1) A hobby and/or social activity, spending a few hours away from the washing up and trying to better your previous results or railing like minded friends (fun & social orientated). Fitted in around any free time, very much second to family & friends. 2) A competitive hobby or sport. Largely results orientated, you are always looking to learn more about the game dynamics & to improve your own game for the challenge it represents. Whilst not primarily driven by $, any income generated helps to pay for the hobby/sport itself with any extra going into playing more, higher levels and/or towards the household budget, holiday fund or savings. 3) An income (or second income) generating vehicle, ranging anywhere from helping out with day to day expenses up to treating it almost on a business like footing. Always $ focused and orientated, your diary is centred more around the games that will yield the best opportunity for return. It comes as no surprise that I personally fit in within 1 & 2 and whilst 3 often crosses my mind, personal circumstances at the moment make me very wary of committing too much, financially, timewise or mentally. There is absolutely nothing wrong with 3. Just bear in mind & consider the following carefully (again purely my own opinion):

• Family first & always.
• A players "edge" in poker over the long term can actually be very small. You may need to put in large volumes or take the occasional shot at a higher level and always seek out whatever added value is going.
• Remain results & improving your own game focused. Set realistic, achievable targets based around volume, deep runs and/or good reads, folds or calls etc. Don't be drawn into setting $ specific targets as chasing them can dramatically affect your thought process and results.
• Consider carefully any health implications. Be it from the addictive nature of poker & other such gaming activities and/or the physical (RSI, back problems, posture etc) or mental aspects. Poker is a brutal game and you need to be mentally strong to brush off the bad beats to move on. Be very aware & act quickly on any symptoms.
• Ironically a big win can also cause problems leading to over-confidence, inflated expectation, a drop in patience and a desire for ever bigger results. Trust me, try playing a $50 freeroll "properly" after a big win and you'll soon see what I mean lol.
• Take regular breaks and days off to recover & refocus.
• BRM becomes even more important than ever before. As well as being disciplined enough to drop down a level, it is equally important to move up the levels when your BRM targets are hit. Otherwise you're not maximising your time and potential returns of your roll.
• Always set a safe conservative BRM level however and just because you are sufficiently rolled for a certain game doesn't mean you will crack it at first attempt. Still need to constantly work on your game.

2 is a good balance in my opinion, look to use and improve on any edge you have and continue to seek out whatever added value you can sticking within a sensible BRM. If you can generate a bit of extra income all the better, but do it in a very measured well thought through way and don't be afraid of taking a break and/or putting family first. Also if you fancy playing a no value, huge field freeroll crapshoot every now and then, why not? Have fun! Consider tracking all of your results in a spreadsheet based on 2 factors. Firstly & obviously based on money in and money out, are you getting back more than you're putting in, whats your ROI, ROCE etc. Secondly and often overlooked by micro players, set up an "effective buyin" field (very simply = Total prize pool divided by number of entrants multiplied by 1.1 to account for buyin fee). This will enable you to more accurately monitor your actual tournament performance in freerolls and added value tournaments. Shout if anyone wants an example of this, I can easily rattle of a couple of examples. Similarly if you want to know the difference between ROI & ROCE etc, happy to explain or set up a blog post describing various measuring stats that you can use including $/Hr %ITM etc. Set aside an amount of money that you can afford to lose. This is your poker bankroll and will be used solely for poker. This + BRM is what you use, try not to withdraw or deposit (other than withdrawing winnings into a savings account to avoid having too much in any one poker site at any time. Designate that savings account (with good rate of interest if possible) as the poker fund and use it solely for poker. Finally (for now as I'm boring everyone reading this), don't lose sight of the fun/enjoyment element. If you don't enjoy playing, through good times & bad, or start feeling pressured into playing when not totally up for it, might need to adjust something.